Praedicator

Verba

Tuesday, April 28, 2009 - Tueday in the Third Week of Easter

[Acts 7:51-8:1A and John 6:30-35]

They threw him [Stephen] out of the city, and began to stone him. The witnesses laid down their cloaks at the feet of a young man named Saul. As they were stoning Stephen, he called out, "Lord Jesus, receive my spirit." Then he fell to his knees and cried out in a loud voice, "Lord, do not hold this sin against them"; and when he said this, he fell asleep. Now Saul was consenting to his execution.

The man who is considered a "second founder" of Christianity was a willing participant - at least a helpful bystander - in the mob lynching of one of the earliest disciples!! That's a pretty raw statement but the passage from Acts today doesn't leave much "wiggle room" in the facts. Oh, one might say, "Well, the Elders and scribes had to respond to what they considered blasphemy according to the Law of Moses which commanded them to stone anyone 'found guilty' of blasphemy!" Presumably, young Saul (later to be known as Paul), being a zealous Pharisee (by his own admission) had to approve of such an action. Hmmmmm.......should we condone violence done under "color of law" simply because it might be legal? It would appear that current government policy (and certainly under the previous government if the letters made public about the legality of torture are any evidence) takes that position.
A passage like the one before us should alert us to the question of our own complicity in any form of violence. Are there any stones in our hands to throw at today's "blasphemers" (who may very well become tomorrow's martyrs and saints)? Are there any cloaks at OUR feet? Ooooooh - those are threatening and dangerous thoughts, but they might, as in the case of young Saul, become the seeds of conversion. AMEN